Feinstein, Levin and McCain: Bin Laden film "grossly inacurate"!

The film about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden is misleading and "grossly inaccurate", suggesting that torture produced the tip that led the US military to the terrorist leader, US senators said.

Three top senators have voiced their anger in a letter to the head of Sony Pictures Entertainment over the film Zero Dark Thirty.

The film-makers dispute that interpretation and encourage people to see the movie, already considered a top Oscar contender, before characterising it.

Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin and John McCain, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, say Sony and its president and chief executive Michael Lynton had an obligation to alter the film and make clear that torture in the hunt for al Qaida mastermind bin Laden was fiction and not based on fact. "We are fans of many of your movies, and we understand the special role that movies play in our lives, but the fundamental problem is that people who see Zero Dark Thirty will believe that the events it portrays are facts," the senators wrote. "The film therefore has the potential to shape American public opinion in a disturbing and misleading manner."